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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25939885">late nights in the middle of june</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/shrack/pseuds/shrack'>shrack</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Glee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, M/M, requested on tumblr! wow!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 06:14:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,915</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25939885</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/shrack/pseuds/shrack</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>anonymous asked: Seblaine prompt: Sebastian and Blaine are childhood best friends before Sebastian moves to Paris and they lose touch, until the meet again a la season 3 at Dalton when Blaine visits.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Blaine Anderson/Sebastian Smythe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>85</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>late nights in the middle of june</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>A seven year-old Sebastian runs fast and hard towards the end of the street, panting mixed with bubbling laughter as he approaches the stop sign at the end. Behind him, a slightly older yet smaller Blaine chases him, trying desperately to catch up but failing as he always does. Sebastian, after all, did sports as soon as he was able to, while Blaine favored the art-based pastimes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sebastian, back then, was somewhat of a klutz. His mother lovingly referred to him as a giraffe still figuring out how to use its legs—he tripped a lot, bruises and cuts at various stages of healing across his body. But he liked to get in fights too (well, what constituted as fights when you're seven, which is to say some shoving sometimes at most), and he never cried when kids were mean right back to him. Blaine, the poor kid, was lucky to have Sebastian on his side. He wore his heart proudly on his sleeve, and if anyone said anything to Blaine, his bottom lip would quiver and Sebastian would have to step in before it got ugly. They're close, since they live not two houses apart from one another, but Sebastian's mom always said that sometimes good things have to come to an end.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"It's not fun if I always win, B," Sebastian shouts as he stops at the sign, turning to watch the last moments of Blaine bringing up the rear. Blaine, catching his breath, stops and places his hands on his knees.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You couldn't let me win even once?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sebastian grins, exposing a missing tooth that he's quite proud of, right next to his two front teeth. "That's even less fun."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two of them start the trek back towards their homes, the sun starting to set over the trees. Blaine talks about all the cool things he wants Sebastian to tell him about in France, and Sebastian lets him talk. He likes when Blaine talks. The two boys knew this was coming at the end of the summer, the news broken to them by Sebastian's mom and dad the day school let out for their favorite season. Neither sets of parents tried to separate them for those few months.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"When you come back to visit," Blaine says, kicking a rock that bounces haphazardly ahead, "I'm gonna get super fast and you won't be able to beat me anymore."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sebastian scoffs. "I'd like to see you try."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blaine takes Sebastian's hand, then, swings them between their bodies, as they walk the final few minutes back home. The Smythes are due to leave early the next morning, and they have to finish packing tonight. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When they get to Sebastian's, Blaine's mom is talking to Sebastian's parents, the adults clearly just as sad to see the family go as Blaine is. The adults talk for a bit, while the boys thumb wrestle. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Wait!" Sebastian gasps, tugging on his mom's arm. "I remembered I wanna give Blaine something. Can I go grab it?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His mom laughs and ruffles the back of his hair, and Sebastian takes off towards the house, bounds up the stairs, and rummages through one of the boxes in his room. The thing he's looking for is nothing special; it's a bookmark of Batman and Robin, one that he asked his dad to buy once because he knew Robin was Blaine's favorite. He hurries back down the stairs again and sticks it out towards Blaine with a smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Here."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blaine gasps as he flips the bookmark over a couple times to take it in, before flinging himself at Sebastian to hug him. Years later, Sebastian will recognize that fluttering feeling in his stomach, but then he blames it on being nervous Blaine wouldn't like it. When they pull apart, Blaine's eyes are big and shiny with tears.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'm gonna miss you, 'Bastian."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sebastian cries that night, in the privacy of his room, after everyone's gone to bed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The flight is long, and Sebastian stares out the window for most of it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sebastian moves on fast, as kids are wont to do. There's a picture of himself and Blaine that lives in the living room for years, the two of them at some kind of event that involved face paint. Sebastian's paint is smudged, vaguely reminiscent of Spider-man, while Blaine's Batman-ish bat over his eyes is still perfectly intact. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He finds new friends, he grows up, but the summers bring along this nostalgia without fail. Late nights spent in either one of their homes, talking about comics or playdate plans or whatever it is that kids like them talked about. Sebastian doesn't try to seek out Blaine when he's old enough, doesn't even think about doing so. To him, Blaine is a fond summer memory, although sometimes, in the damp heat of June nights, he wonders how Blaine is doing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ten years make Sebastian more cynical. He gravitates towards theater in middle school while sticking with a travel lacrosse team. Somewhere along the way, his parents separate. He doesn't connect with too many people when he's eleven, even less when he's twelve, and when he makes it into high school, he's on the defensive more often than not. He learns to be quick-witted, to keep people at a distance, because people can be no good up close. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the final months of his sophomore year, things kind of go to shit, thus proving his point. His father, who has been living closeby in a separate home moves back to Ohio for his job. Sebastian meets a boy, and they kiss in the privacy of the locker room after lacrosse practice. Private is made public when that boy decides that he </span>
  <em>
    <span>doesn't </span>
  </em>
  <span>like other boys, and takes it out on Sebastian. He has no one but his mother and sister by his side as the effects of that ripple through their small town, and it wears him down something fierce, into a place that would probably only get worse if he stuck around to see it through. So, after a long talk, he moves back to Ohio to follow his dad at the end of the school year.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The summer seems to drag on even more than it usually does. It’s the first time in a long time he hasn’t had anyone to share it with. So, he lays by the pool, he scopes out the nightlife, he tries to catch up on reading some of the books he brought along with him. He wonders if Blaine still lives in their development.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he gets to his school at the end of the summer, a private school named Dalton Academy that his father practically pushed him into, he tries to find things to do there. He figures signing up for a bunch of clubs wouldn’t hurt anybody, and one of the groups that catches his eye pretty quickly are the Warblers. Although he could do without a couple of the guys saying that they’re “basically rockstars”, because no a cappella group is that cool in any sense of the word. But either way, it quickly slots its way into top importance with lacrosse, which fills up quite a bit of his time. And he’s thankful for it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So now, the Warblers are gearing up for their latest run through of “Uptown Girl” before their rehearsal wraps, Nick bouncing nervously as he looks around at the other members. Sebastian tried to learn their names pretty quickly in order to rise through the ranks—and it seems like they all like him enough to give him that chance, too. When the song starts, Sebastian perched on a couch opposite the door to take in the view, he spots someone appear in the doorway out of the corner of his eye. He looks over, and when he does, he almost falters out of the song altogether.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Because there, smiling fondly in the doorway, is Blaine. </span>
  <em>
    <span>The </span>
  </em>
  <span>Blaine, the one he hasn’t seen in at least ten years. Suddenly his heart takes a leap into his throat, and Sebastian doesn’t have time to unpack </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blaine looks and does a proper double take. Once, just taking in the people in the room, and then his head snaps back in realization. Sebastian can't help the smile that bubbles up—Blaine's </span>
  <em>
    <span>here</span>
  </em>
  <span>, he's </span>
  <em>
    <span>close</span>
  </em>
  <span> again. Blaine looks ridiculously good, he then notes, and doesn't try to hide checking him out as he goes up to him to pull him into the song. Sebastian isn't sure what he expected Blaine to look like now, but he's pleasantly surprised by what he sees, even if the hair gel is a bit much.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Sebastian gets up to pull Blaine in with the rest of them, there are a couple of things he notices. One, is that the Warblers are nearly as excited to see Blaine as he is, which must mean that </span>
  <em>
    <span>this</span>
  </em>
  <span> Blaine and the mystery captain they talked about all the time are the same person. Two, Blaine can’t stop staring at Sebastian as he goes, which is proving awfully distracting for Sebastian, personally. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The song finishes and Blaine explains why he’s actually there, to invite them all to his high school’s performance of West Side Story, which Sebastian happily accepts on the team’s behalf. The Warblers all part ways to start gearing up to leave for the day, but Sebastian sticks his hands in his pockets and moves in front of Blaine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Doesn’t look like you’ve grown at all,” he says with a smirk, and Blaine blatantly ignores him in favor of leaning up to pull him into a hug. Sebastian’s sure the rest of the team is confused, but he can’t find it in him to care as he returns the hug with a soft chuckle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t believe this,” Blaine says excitedly as he pulls back, “why are you here? You go here, obviously, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>here—”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Sebastian raises an eyebrow. “Figured it was time to come back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blaine almost looks sad. “But you lived in </span>
  <em>
    <span>France.</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sebastian breathes a laugh. “Yeah, well. Do you want to grab coffee for a bit?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s surprisingly how quickly ten years can be boiled down into a five minute recap. Blaine got very invested in theater, he took up singing, and is now in a competing show choir. Sebastian continued with sports, found theater in middle school, and surprise! Now he’s in Ohio again. Blaine’s a bit more detailed with his recap, only taking breaks to take a sip from his drink or blush at a comment from Sebastian. Sebastian can’t stop watching him as he talks, though. He always did like it when Blaine talked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, I have to ask,” Sebastian says, and Blaine looks nervous. “Why’d you leave Dalton? Were you bored with all the preppies around here? Or is it that you break too many hearts to stay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blaine gives a flustered laugh, and Sebastian smirks over the top of his coffee. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, uh, my parents hit a tough spot last year,” Blaine admits, fidgeting with his cup, “and we’re zoned for McKinley, which is...something, I guess.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re really enthusiastic about this public school,” Sebastian deadpans.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s...good, for the most part. The glee club is my home. But I went to Dalton to get away from the bullying, you know? And walking around with my boyfriend just invited that all back again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sebastian raises his eyebrows. “Boyfriend.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blaine waves a hand. “Well, ex, now, but we’re still friends. We met at Dalton, he transferred because </span>
  <em>
    <span>he </span>
  </em>
  <span>was getting bullied. But now we’re both there. It’s a mess.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sebastian busies himself with finishing off his coffee. He’s single, which is good. Sebastian’s not exactly the boyfriend type, but Blaine is nothing to scoff at, and flirting with Blaine scratches an itch he didn’t even know existed until right now. Seven year-old Sebastian may have not known then what those feelings were, but now he does.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s really good to see you, Sebastian,” Blaine says after a few moments, and the soft smile on his face is enough to send Sebastian’s stomach into a flutter. “I can’t believe you’re back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Something good came out of me moving, then,” Sebastian says, and he pulls out his phone to hand it to Blaine. “So we don’t lose touch again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They talk, and often. If Sebastian were a different man, he would admit that it was one of the only things getting him through his life back in Westerfield. Competitions are good, but seeing Blaine at them was even better. They meet up for coffee regularly, the other New Directions don’t like Sebastian very much, but he doesn’t need them to. Blaine likes him, and that’s enough.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s June again, now, the school year finally coming to a close. Sebastian let Blaine take him to one of his family’s vacation spots, a small lake cabin directly on the water. The two of them sit at the edge of the dock, their feet in the water. Blaine sits upright and talks about college ideas, while Sebastian’s leaned back on his hands. He watches the muscles underneath Blaine’s shirt move as he gestures with his hands, some of the curls at the nape of his neck freeing themselves from the gel prison they’re locked in daily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We never raced, you know,” Sebastian says, and Blaine looks over his shoulder with a confused look.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You said, before I left. That when I visited you would get super fast and finally beat me in a race.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blaine smiles. “You remember that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sebastian breathes a laugh up into the air. “I trained for it, B.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’re quiet for a few more beats, but then Blaine’s hopping up and holding out his hand for Sebastian to take. “A promise is a promise.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sebastian grins and takes the hand to hoist himself up, and Blaine leads them to the manmade beach off to the side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m positive you’re going to beat me,” Blaine mutters, but he points to the other end of the beach.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where’s the fighting spirit, B?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blaine calls, “On your mark, get set,” and takes off before he says “Go!”, which Sebastian laughs at and starts chasing him down. He hasn’t given himself much of a head start, and running on sand is significantly harder than hard ground, so Sebastian passes him quickly and Blaine shouts in protest as he does. When he comes up to the end he turns around to watch Blaine finish, who then flops dramatically into the sand to catch his breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My calves are on fire,” he says between breaths, and Sebastian chuckles softly. He looks down at Blaine, watches him breathe heavily for a second, before laying down next to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you doing?” Blaine laughs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sebastian tucks an arm under his head and turns to look at Blaine. The golden hour makes his eyes look like ambers, and Sebastian smirks. “Checking out the view from down here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Silence passes between them, and Sebastian can’t bring himself to look away. Blaine takes the moment to shift a bit and grab Sebastian’s free hand, lacing their fingers together. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I still have that bookmark somewhere in my room,” Blaine admits quietly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is it beat to shit? There’s no way that thing held up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blaine chuckles and meets Sebastian’s eye. “It’s not too bad. Meant a lot to me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sebastian hopes, for a moment, that he’s not horribly misreading the conversation here. He searches Blaine’s eyes, who still hasn’t moved away or tried to separate them as they lay there. It’s an absolutely ridiculous sight, but it reminds Sebastian of his childhood—and he </span>
  <em>
    <span>hates </span>
  </em>
  <span>that Blaine wasn’t there alongside him. He realizes that he doesn’t really want to lose Blaine again, not for a while.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So, he sits up a bit to free his other hand, and turns on his side to cup Blaine’s cheek to kiss him softly. The angle is less than ideal, and some sand must fall off the back of Sebastian’s hand and onto Blaine, because Blaine laughs against his lips, all while pushing closer to keep them together. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The cool night sneaks up on them while they’re still sitting out on the dock, talking idly. Fireflies crop up across the lake, and Sebastian watches as Blaine desperately tries to catch one. Blaine cups his hands together at the edge of the dock, beckoning Sebastian close, and as soon as Sebastian comes close, Blaine shoves him by the hips into the water.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blaine jumps in shortly after, laughing the entire time as he grabs onto Sebastian’s shoulders to keep himself above the water. Sebastian loops his arms around Blaine’s waist and Blaine takes the cue to wrap his legs around Sebastian’s waist.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re lucky I didn’t have my phone on me,” Sebastian chuckles, and Blaine uses both of his hands to push Sebastian’s hair off his forehead before leaning down to kiss him again. Sebastian’s surprised at how much Blaine </span>
  <em>
    <span>gives,</span>
  </em>
  <span> how willingly he goes with Sebastian when he nips on Blaine’s bottom lip. Sebastian wants to take, and Blaine seems like he’d let him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blaine pulls back with a soft gasp, eyes still shut, hands on either side of Sebastian’s face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think you need to cool down,” Sebastian murmurs, and before Blaine can react, he’s dunking the two of them underwater.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blaine comes up with a gasp, which quickly devolves into a splashing feud, and Sebastian always knew that summer was his favorite season.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>tumblr is shrack, if it so implores you! this was a ton of fun to write!</p><p>title from heat waves by glass animals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRD0-GxqHVo</p></blockquote></div></div>
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